While the invention is subject to a wide range of applications, it is especially suited for use as a work-holder and will be particularly described in that connection.
In the past, there have been a number of different types of work-holders which have been used for moving, holding, and picking up different components and particularly hard-to-handle items, such as gems. In addition, some of these work-holders include a light source to facilitate examining the object which is being held.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,376,448 to Neugass discloses a tweezer implement which has a light source provided in the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,515,484 to Normand discloses a vacuum chuck for holding optical lenses and includes the concept of a light source associated with a microscope for illuminating the lens which may be held within the chuck.
Still there has remained the problem of having a portable, hand-held, work-holding device which uses a vacuum for picking up an otherwise hard-to-handle item including a light source whereby the item can be easily examined.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a work-holding device which substantially obviates one or more of the limitations and disadvantages of the described prior arrangements.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an improved work-holding device which is easy to operate and handle.
It is still a further object of the present invention to provide a work-holding device which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
It is a yet further object of the present invention to provide a work-holding device which provides both a system for holding the object as well as a light source for viewing the object.